Vehicle mainteance and repair costs

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I have kept receipts for maintenance and repairs of my vehicle in an envelope in my glove box. I never calculated costs per year or per mile. So I took a few minutes to do the calculations. I logged tires, batteries, fluid changes, filters, brake, O2 sensor, broken mirror, belts etc. No registration fees etc. or gas costs were included. Services were done at or before manufacturer recommendations by myself.

Years of ownership: 11.5 years
Total cost repair and maintenance: $1625
Cost per year: $141
Cost per mile: $0.03 per mile

I couldn't expect any more reliable or cost effective vehicle. I do expect the vehicle to cost me more in maintenance and repair as it is an aging 2003 model but it still has plenty of life.
 
Well some would want to figure the total cost of ownership which can include the car, insurance, gas, registration and repairs.

Other would want to only count repairs that are repair rather than maint. So tires, brakes, batteries, fluids, filters would not count. But if the alternator failed that would count.
 
I bought my 2002 used in 2009 and have put 48K miles on it since. My maintenance cost of ownership has been 4.5c per mile. The car is essentially 90% depreciated from MSRP ($38K)and insurance is on the low side at approx $375/yr. I just want to avoid any further big bills. Replacing the radiator and a front axle were not expected.

Insurance costs more than the maintenance. And gas is more than all the other costs combined. Works out to be 28c/mile. Paid $9K for the car with 22K miles. Have spent $13,600 over 6+ years....more than the cost of the car....$2,100 per year. I didn't realize that the gas was 60% of the total costs. Depreciation since I bought it averages $690/yr or 6-8% per year. Lesson learned...don't drive it.
 
Over 11 years and 314,000 miles I tabulated on my VW:
7.9c/m depreciation
3.4c/m repairs
6.9c/m fuel

Repairs got lumped with maintaince unfortunately, and it's too late / too much work to separate; but it was almost $11k for both. TCO was at least $61k.

Edit: add another $11k (guess) for ins+reg.
 
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OP clearly stated in the title "maintenance and repair costs", not "cost of ownership". Gas, tire, brake, insurance, registration, depreciation ... are not part of "maintenance and repair costs".
 
For my 2003 Mazda Protege5, purchased used at about 90k miles on 4/13/2011, my costs including purchase price, tax, title and tags, gas, maintenance and repairs have been $20,613.50 as of last Friday when I filled up with fuel. I've put 106,7xx miles on the car in that time.

That makes about $0.193/mile in total costs

I've averaged 30.6 MPG in mixed driving.

I had to rebuild the engine as either I dropped something in #1 cylinder or the new plug let go of it's platinum pad and beat the heck out of it. So that added just under $3000 of M&R that one may or may not see. But over the course of 106k miles, that's a small per mile addition.

Roughly speaking about 25% of the spending was to buy the car, another 25% was M&R. The remaining 50% is fuel and tags.

I hope to get another 50k miles out of it before it rusts away. I'll have two of my three kids out of college by then, I hope.
 
Talk about keeping maintenance records, I had a detailed list on a excel spreadsheet of everything I did to my 05 F150. When I sold it, the fellow who bought it, at a price that made me very happy, said he didn't care anything about seeing it. I had figured it would help me out when I sold it. Little did I know.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
OP clearly stated in the title "maintenance and repair costs", not "cost of ownership". Gas, tire, brake, insurance, registration, depreciation ... are not part of "maintenance and repair costs".


Fair enough, although tire and brakes are either maintenance or repair, depending upon how you want to view them.
 
Originally Posted By: Bud
Talk about keeping maintenance records, I had a detailed list on a excel spreadsheet of everything I did to my 05 F150. When I sold it, the fellow who bought it, at a price that made me very happy, said he didn't care anything about seeing it. I had figured it would help me out when I sold it. Little did I know.


Might not help the next guy out, but it can be nice to enlighten one's self as to what vehicles cost. Many just own without a thought as to total cost.
 
Originally Posted By: Bud
I had a detailed list on a excel spreadsheet of everything I did to my 05 F150. When I sold it, the fellow who bought it, at a price that made me very happy, said he didn't care anything about seeing it. I had figured it would help me out when I sold it. Little did I know.

On the other hand, I found a buyer who let me know he was quite happy to see the maintenance and repair records on the car I sold. He said it was important to him and it helped secure the deal.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
You have to include insurance and gas or it really doesn't mean much.


How so? It seems a better way to compare the cars reliability when you calculate only the cost of maintenance and repairs over a given time.
Throw in fluctuating gas prices and insurance rates that can differ wildly from State to State or even driver to driver and you tainted the whole thing.

I think any suspension work caused by defective roads should be excluded also. It has nothing to do with the car or parts that the City, State, etc let the roads get into such a bad state of disrepair that the vehicles suspensions are damaged, that IMO comes under unpaid accident damage.
 
Honda family here, only regular maintenance. Nothing major.... just adding refrigerant to A/C every few years.

Javacontour,
Did you rebuild the engine or have a shop rebuild it?
 
I always watched my gas cost and mpg every tank, but would only record maintenance and repairs in my log (excel), not the costs.

I'm tracking all of it and in their own columns this time:
Purchase costs, Maintenance, Repairs, Warm & Fuzzy (unneeded convenience parts / mods), Insurance, Registration, Gas.

I know it will be eye opening
 
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